This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Military issues

  • Navy hopes “Act of Valor” attracts recruits

    This is pretty ridiculous. While thousands of sailors got their pink slips in the last few months, the Navy says they hope that the release of the SEAL movie “Act of Valor” will attract new recruits says the Associated Press;

    “It was initially started as a recruiting film so we could help recruit minorities into the teams,” [Adm. Bill McRaven] explained. He said he didn’t think the film gave anything away to the enemy, nor would it put in danger the SEALs who starred in it.

    McRaven told a Washington audience recently that he’d signed up for special operations forces after seeing the 1968 John Wayne film, “The Green Berets,” and that he had worked on the movie “Raise the Titanic” as a young ensign, also to drive recruitment.

    Yeah, with the military drawing down to pre-World War II levels, I don’t know how much the SEALs will need a recruiting video. The only ranks I think it will swell are the ranks of phonies who don’t want to bother with all of that bullshit qualification stuff and will go straight to Ranger Joe’s to buy the badges. Maybe the Navy should get a piece of that action instead of hoping for the flood of supermen in recruiting offices.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be watching the movie as soon as it gets near the TAH mountain retreat, but I don’t think it’ll attract the people to the military that they’re hoping for.

    Meanwhile, in a link sent to us by Tman from the Montreal Gazette, SEALs seem to approve of the movie;

    “We first set out make an action movie with actors, but once we were immersed inside the SEALs community, we realized how deep the brotherhood goes,” said McCoy. “The only way to pay tribute to these guys was to use real SEALs doing what they do.”

    Actors Alex Veadov, Roselyn Sanchez, Nestor Serrano and Emilio Rivera star in the movie, while several SEALs veterans – who are not named in the credits – played themselves.

    Old Trooper sent us a link yesterday which quoted Roslyn Sanchez, one of my little brown girl crushes, on working with the SEALs in the movie;

    “What surprised me was how unaffected and cool they were,” Sanchez told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column of the SEALs. “Here they were doing a Hollywood movie and it wasn’t a big deal, they went along for the ride, they did their thing and they were incredible. I didn’t see any diva behavior. It was new for me to work with guys that even if they were waiting around for eight hours and didn’t have a trailer, they were content. It was refreshing.”

    Big surprise, huh? Working with real people is easier than working with those homos in Hollywood.

  • Marines dispute police accounts of shooting

    In the story about Orange County Deputy Sheriff Department shooting of Marine Sgt. Manuel Loggins Jr, which we first discussed last week, members of Loggins’ unit are speaking up to dispute essential elements of the deputies in a Marine Corps Times/Associated Press article sent to us by Marine-7002;

    Loggins’ commanding officer, Col. Nicholas Marano, countered back with a bruising statement issued to the media: “While I am confident they will do the right thing in the end, I am less than satisfied with the official response from the City of San Clemente and Orange County. Many of the statements made concerning Manny Loggins’ character over the past few days are incorrect and deeply hurtful to an already grieving family.”

    The words were especially searing given the military’s close relationship with law enforcement agencies — many of whom are made up of former service members — and the fact that the investigation was in its initial stages. The Orange County district attorney’s office is leading the probe and declined to comment.

    Loggins’ supervisor, Maj. Christopher Cox, said Marano’s bold statement won applause in the Corps.

    “We’re glad he stepped up and made a statement over the way this has been handled,” he said. “Everybody reads the report presented by the Orange County officials. Obviously it contradicts what we know to be the case about him. He was involved with his family. His relationship with his daughters was fantastic. They were a close family. To paint it any other way is not right.”

    The police, who’ve made it sound like Loggins was yet another nutty veteran having a PTSD episode, are out in the cold on this one. Even though Loggins has been in the Marine Corps since 1999, he has never deployed to the war on terror. The Marine Corps and the police agree that Loggins had three Bibles in his car, but nothing that would endanger the sheriff’s deputy or his children.

    Our buddy, Beat and Release, has assembled most of the facts on his own blog in an easy to understand post.

    Given the breathless recounting of Itzcoatl Ocampo’s story of a nutty veteran who killed at least four homeless men in LA County because of his service in the war against terror, you’d think the police have an easy exit from this tragic embarrassment, what with the media’s rush to explain everything with stereotypes. But the Orange County Sheriff’s Department needs to come clean with the truth quickly in this case for the newly widowed, expectant wife and the two traumatized children who witnessed the murder of their father.

  • Empathy Army

    Several of you guys sent us this link to the story about the Army making guys wear fake boobs and fake preggo-tummies so they learn to empathize with pregnant female soldiers who have to take PT.

    The Army is ordering its hardened combat veterans to wear fake breasts and empathy bellies so they can better understand how pregnant soldiers feel during physical training.

    This week, 14 noncommissioned officers at Camp Zama took turns wearing the “pregnancy simulators” as they stretched, twisted and exercised during a three-day class that teaches them to serve as fitness instructors for pregnant soldiers and new mothers.

    Army enlisted leaders all over the world are being ordered to take the Pregnancy Postpartum Physical Training Exercise Leaders Course, or PPPT, according to U.S. Army Medical Activity Japan health promotion educator Jana York.

    I noticed that there were no females wearing the pregger-suits. I’m pretty sure that women who have never been pregnant don’t know how it feels either. But, of course, it’s only the men who have to wear the suit, because men can’t feel empathy without being humiliated and emasculated.

    McQ also comments on the practice at Blackfive.

  • Charges dropped against SF soldier with explosives

    Marine_7002 sends us a link which reports that Trey Atwater, the Special Forces soldier arrested for attempting to carry explosives aboard a commercial airplane, which we discussed last month has had the charges against him dropped;

    [U.S. Attorney Robert] Pitman said Atwater, who has served three tours of duty in Afghanistan with the Army Special Forces, had apparently forgotten the C-4 was there when he grabbed the backpack out of the garage of his home in North Carolina.

    “Under the standards applicable to this prosecution, the government believes it cannot be proved that Atwater committed a criminal offense,” Pitman said. He said the lot number of the C-4 in Atwater’s backpack matched a lot number which had been ‘exclusively shipped to Afghanistan.’

    I know this is terribly disappointing to Janet Napolitano, but that’s the way it shakes out sometimes. Some of us aren’t real terrorists.

  • What they’re making flag officers these days

    Navy Reserve Capt. Timothy W. Dorsey has been nominated by the Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta for Admiral. If his name sounds familiar, it might because of the incident in 1987 when he shot down fellow Navy aviators during training. The Washington Times reports;

    His promotion to admiral has some in the aviation community shaking their heads, especially because minor discretions by flight officers over the past decades have resulted in reprimands and the ends of careers.

    Lawyer Charles Gittins, a former Marine Corps aviator, has represented several naval officers whose careers were ended for what he considered minor misconduct.

    “It is shocking that the Navy would promote an officer with this background to flag rank, particularly in an environment where the Navy relieves commanding officers of their commands at the drop of a hat for trivial or insubstantial reasons,” Mr. Gittins told The Washington Times.

    With 0-6s getting relieved left and right these days, I wonder how this one slipped through the cracks. The report on the incident in which he shot down fellow pilots concluded;

    “He failed to utilize the decision-making process taught in replacement training and reacted in a purely mechanical manner. The performance of Lieutenant Timothy W. Dorsey on September 22, 1987, raises substantial doubt as to his capacity for good, sound judgment.”

    Sounds like he’ll fit right in with the current leadership at the Pentagon.

    Thanks to Country Singer for the link.

  • Defenseless

    When President Eisenhower began drawing down the land forces of our military after the Korean War, his policy was dependent on our nuclear arsenal calling it “a bigger bang for the buck”. Now as the Obama Administration is drawing down our armed forces’ capability, he also wants to deplete the nuclear capability, too (Associated Press link);

    The Obama administration is weighing options for sharp new cuts to the U.S. nuclear force, including a reduction of up to 80 percent in the number of deployed weapons, The Associated Press has learned.

    Even the most modest option now under consideration would be an historic and politically bold disarmament step in a presidential election year, although the plan is in line with President Barack Obama’s 2009 pledge to pursue the elimination of nuclear weapons.

    I don’t like nuclear weapons, but they’re a reality in the current climate. With North Korea and Iran, the thugs of the world are getting their grubby paws on nukes and the only reason we haven’t been the victim of our invention is that we’ve always had a greater capability to return the favor to anyone who would them on us.

    Now we’re going to unilaterally surrender in the arms race. That’ll work out well for us. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that the President is inviting an invasion.

    Thanks to Old Trooper for the link.

  • Mabus: OK, I’ll stop now

    The Navy Secretary, Ray Maybus, has decided that maybe naming ships after his buddies isn’t such a good idea and maybe he’ll start naming them after more traditional stuff according to the Washington Times;

    Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, under fire from Congress and veterans for naming ships after fellow Democrats and social activists, plans to announce another round of ship names in the near future that will be more traditional, a Pentagon official tells The Washington Times.

    The official said Mr. Mabus has chosen names for five surface ships – three for war heroes and two for locations. Ships typically are named after states and cities.

    “I think they would be more consistent with what most people would say traditions and naming conventions are,” the official said.

    Asked whether this was a response to criticism, the official said: “It isn’t. I think if you look at these five additional ships, I think you’ll see examples that are very traditional.” The official said three ships would be named after highly decorated Navy or Marine Corps personnel.

    This was the subject of a discussion I had earlier this week with Captain Larry Bailey who has founded No Murtha Ship. He’s asking for your help.

    Our two TAH insurgents on Capitol Hill have tried to influence their bosses to get on board the No Murtha Ship. Their advice was for you folks to contact the members of the House Armed Services Committee (there are 61 members) and express your displeasure at Mabus’ habit of naming ships after any old clown. The members are listed at this link. For some reason I can’t get the actual website of the Committee to come up this morning.

  • Panetta jumps on the budget-cutting sword

    Leon Panetta, the Defense Secretary who was assigned to the post to slash the living shit out of the Defense Department, appeared in front Congress today to justify the fact that he intends to leave us defenseless (Stars & Stripes link);

    “Respectfully, this doesn’t add up,” McCain said. “Unfortunately, this defense budget continues the administration’s habit of putting short-term political considerations over our long-term national security interests.”

    Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said that while Panetta was only carrying out his duties under the law in cutting the defense budget, the DOD is bearing the brunt of years of financial irresponsibility throughout the government.

    “As I look at what you’ve had to do to meet the bottom line requirements of the Budget Control Act, it represents, in my opinion, unacceptable risk to our national security,” he said.

    Panetta said DOD has a part to play in budget cutting, and Congress needs to take seriously the threat of uncontrolled spending.

    “We have tried to step up to the plate and do our duty here,” he said. “In weighing how you address this issue, you’ve also got to take into consideration the national security threat that comes from the huge deficits and the huge debt that we’re running.”

    “Step up and do our duty” must mean that the DoD has to shoulder the burden of the entire budget-cutting process for the entire Executive Branch. Panetta said earlier today that this is the Senate’s opportunity to prove that they’re serious about cutting spending. Well, “provide for the common defense” is right there in the Preamble of the Constitution, but all of that other bullshit about healthcare, government-funded abortions and the all of the stuff that makes the Left feel good about themselves isn’t even mentioned.

    Like someone said in the comments in the previous post on the subject, how many lives will the next war cost us while we get ourselves back up to par? Who wants to be the first to die for this lie? I’m not saying that there isn’t waste to be cut out of the Defense budget, but when you talk about slashing manpower by entire maneuver elements, that’s not cutting waste – it’s cutting our means of defense.